Cafe at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
by LotusRoseBlossom
Summary: Life after high school should have been easy: get diploma, be admitted to a college of his choice and study hard and stay low through-out his entire college 'experience'. But all that is shattered when Kiku is, ah, blindsided by a certain happy-go-lucky blonde with an insatiable appetite for cheap fast food. How will Kiku cope with this intrusion to his otherwise quiet dark world?


Kiku opened his eyes.

For whatever good it did.

He felt the warm morning sun wash over him, giving him a warm glow. He hummed contently.

"Ohayō, taiyō," he greeted the morning light.

The sheets he lay on where warm from his body heat. He noticed the little noises. The window was cracked open, letting in the noise of morning rush hour. The heater was on, creating a soothing white noise. He shifted again, turning onto his back, raising an arm up to washed out ceiling.

"Ohayō, bodi," he greeted his body.

He dropped the arm and closed his eyes. He took a deep breathe. Without opening his eyes he whispers in the warm glow of the morning.

"Ohayō, jibun."

**. : : .**

As he waited in line for his usual cup of morning tea, he tapped the books he carried in his arm anxiously. The morning was cold, but inside the little café it was warm, thanks to the steaming machines giving coffee and lattes to groggy morning college students. He heard the bustle of people, mostly college students like himself waiting to get their morning jump start with high levels of caffeine and sugar. He felt the heat of the impatient people behind him waiting to be served, tapping impatient feet and rustling sleeves to check watches. He smelled the coffee- he never had acquired a taste for that- and the smell of cleaning supplies, from the night before, when a brawl had upset a waitress carrying hot beverages. He hoped Elizabeta was okay. She had sounded furious over the phone when she'd called to inform him of a 'punk' who had pushed her in his haste to get back at another student, accidently knocking her tray full of drinks. They got docked from her pay and she complained she couldn't get the smell of coffee out of her hair. He felt a small smile tug on the corner of his lips. He raised a hand to adjust the dark sunglass's he always wore, even in the winter. They made him feel . . . safer, he supposed, from the world. He tugged on his college sweater, the one he was donning for the first time because of the rising cold. The hem was frayed slightly.

He frowned faintly in confusion. When he'd bought it, it had been in perfect condition. Had he snagged it on something? He didn't thing so. As he puzzled this, the door chimed as another student entered, letting in a blast of cold air. He turned his head slightly, while the other people whined.

"Ack! It's freezing!"

"Jeez, close the door!"

"My hair! I spent all morning on these curls, idiot!"

That wasn't very polite, he thought as the person in front got called to order. Yeah, he was cold as well, if his goose bumps were an indication, but to complain so loudly to someone in public wasn't right.

"My bad, my bad!" a cheery voice called out. The door chimed again.

"Late. Next time you will be docked," the voice belonging to the Vash Zwingli, the student in charge of running the café, sounding annoyed. Vash was always very strict on his employees being punctual. "I don't know why I hired someone like you. . ." he sighed, his voice retreating as he went behind the shop, where he managed all the money they earned. "Just get to work already."

"Hey, move up, dude," a voice behind him said gruffly.

"Oh," kiku, so lost in his thoughts, hadn't moved up. He turned forward and walked two paces forward. That seemed about right to him.

"I apolo-"

"Yo! Move out of the way!" a loud voice suddenly called out, cutting him off.

"Hey!"

"Oh!"

Something barreled into him from the right. Something big. Kiku, tiny as he was, didn't have much of a chance. He got knocked to the ground; the edge of whatever had hit him clipped him on the side of the head, knocking his glasses off. They skittered away as he landed on his side curled up, his shoulder getting the most impact.

The thing kept coming, not stopping in momentum, its wheels prodding it on. The big wheels ran over his hand.

He cried out as his hand erupted in pain. What was going on? He panicked, shakily trying to move out of the way.

But, he really didn't have any luck today, did he? It seemed that way, since, when he panicked and pushed himself up, he accidently pushed the wheeled contraption as well, making it wobble and tip to one side, looming over him, threatening to topple on him. . .

**: : : **

The patrons had all looked on in shock as all this happened. That is, until a certain bubbly Italian happened to walk out of the back along with a tall German.

"Ve~ But Ludwig~" he whined as he was scolded by said man.

"Nein, Feliciano, you can't go eat pasta instead of going to class," he answered, seemingly tired of having the same argument over and over again.

"But-" he stopped mid sentence as he spot a crowd of people, well, crowding around the edges of the 'Wait-In-Line' . . . line.

"Ve?" he tilted his head to one side. "What's going on?" he asked out loud, walking forward to the back of the crowd. He hopped up and down to try to see, but he was too small and the crowd to big.

"Uh!" he said in a last ditch effort to see. He turned to Ludwig, who had followed him. He widened his eyes into his signature 'Bambi' gaze.

"Ve, luddy~" he crooned to a very suspicious looking Ludwig.

"Yes . . .?" he asked wearily.

"Can you carry me on your shoulders to see what's going on?" he asked brightly.

Ludwig sputtered, cheeks red, "Why would I do that?" he asked.

"Coz, you love me?"

"What?"

Ludwig was saved from the answer as a loud boom and an unmistakable voice rang out in . . . pain?

Feliciano's amber eyes widened, as he recognized the voice.

"That's-"

"Kiku!" they said in unison.

They promptly both began pushing through the crowd.

**: : : **

Alfred wasn't a morning person, okay? He wasn't his best in the morning. It was, like, his kryptonite, or something like that.

. . . Actually that metaphor wasn't so bad. He felt proud of that one. Mornings were like his kryptonite.

Hah, so there! He so could make a metaphor, first grade teacher! It only took him up to college!

Anyway, back to the point at hand, it really wasn't his fault he was late! He overslept, and his clock had gone wonky and he was still hurting over a nasty break up.

He felt his stomach tilt as he remembered _him_. He walked faster to the café he worked at in the mornings. He needed a distraction from Arthur; he couldn't keep acting so uncool over everything.

Yeah, cause. . .

"I'M THE HERO!" he yelled out in the middle of the street, stopping in from of the steps of the 'Café Aigre-Doux', which he had come to figure out meant 'Bittersweet Coffee', which confused him. Didn't they _want_ customers?

He looked at the people who barely glanced at him, as he posed in his 'Hero' pose. He shrugged, jogging up the steps to the traditional café shop doors. Weirder things had happened in Manhattan.

The door jingled as he stepped into the warm shop. As usual, the people began to moan and bleat about the cold.

"My bad, my bad," he said, rolling his eyes at the girl, Michelle Bonneyfoy, Francis's cousin or something, complained about her long curly pigtails.

Sheesh, girls. Maybe that's what had driven him to date guys, they didn't complain about weird things like that. As he walked past her, he tugged on one her pigtails. She tried to glare at him, but couldn't hold back a giggle.

"Late!" barked his boss, who was maybe a year older than him. He went on about something, honestly all he heard was 'Wha wha whaa wha whaa' like in Charlie Brown. He just nodded, and tried to look ashamed. He just sighed, seeing through his façade, and ordered him to get to work.

He shook his head. What was with that guy, anyway? Whatever, wasn't his problem. . . He went to the back room taking off the saddle bag thing that the college provided the students. He didn't like it, I mean it looked like those frickin' side bags girls carried everywhere. But, whatever, he didn't have to pay for it so he didn't care.

"Oy, Alfredo!"

He turned to another fellow worker, Antonio, a very happy Spaniard. When he wasn't busy humming and whistling, he was bothering a regular, Lovino Vargas.

"Sup, dude?" he nodded, walking over to punch his card.

"Eh, nada especial," he answered making so-so motions with his hand. "Listen, Boss wants you to move that big ol' book case that's in the main lobby. Says it's crowding the entrance, o algo asi," he laughed, shrugging before walking off, presumably to bother Lovino.

"Ehhhh, why meeee?" he groaned.

No answer.

He sighed and went out the room to grab the bookcase.

**. : : . **

After finally finding the wheelie thing to put it on, to make things easier on him (thanks, elizabeta!) and actually putting the damn thing on said wheelie thing (what was it called?) he finally pushed it forward making slow progress, but progress none the less.

"Out of my way, heavy machinery coming through!" he called out as the people moved, grudgingly.

He panted as he stopped to catch his breathe and let a customer up to the counter. He leaned on the book case, he was so tired!

Huh, it was real mahogany, eh? He thought as he leaned more heavily on it. No wonder it's so hard to mo-

Then he felt himself falling. He caught himself in time and looked around confused. What in the what? Then he saw the bookcase racing down the little hill that he had stopped at.

"Aw, crap!" he cursed, as it got to the bottom and. . . kept going. Man, he'd have to go get it now!

He growled, then his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. A tall man wearing a blue scarf with a white line in the middle said something to another guy, with a college sweater on, from his college too, and he looked like he'd been shaken from his thoughts cause, he recoiled and walked forward. . . to stand exactly in the middle of the little area between the line and the counter.

Shit!

He scrambled up and ran down to try to intercept. That idiot, couldn't he see the big bookcase racing towards him?

"H-Hey! HEY!" he yelled waving his arms. "Yo! Move out of the way!"

But he turned the wrong way, turning to face the other dude. Then. . .

_**CRASH!**_

The dude got hit. Alfred winced as he heard the impact, running harder to get to him. Fuck, he was going to get docked, huh?

* * *

**Ohayō : Good morning**

**taiyō: sun **

**bodi: body **

**jibun: myself **

**nada especial: nothing special **

**o algo asi: or something like that **


End file.
